I thought they started out with 20 at Palau and kicked two off right away when they chose up sides - one was I think John and the second was that lady who had written 75 songs about Survivor and thankfully was booted off before she could sing all of them. Wanda, was it? I couldn't believe how pointless that first "pick teams for dodgeball" elimination was.
I just finished watching repeats of Vanuatu on OLN - man, but I hated that season.
I look at it as Jonathan and Wanda never really got to play the game, never actually "got voted out" and therefore were never really part of the season.
I all reality, the game didn't start until the tribes were split into 2 tribes of 9 each.
But "technically" you are correct.